"Mr. Babbin is the editor of Human Events. He served as a deputy undersecretary of defense in President George H.W. Bush's administration. He is the author of In the Words of our Enemies (Regnery, 2007) and (with Edward Timperlake) of Showdown: Why China Wants War with the United States (Regnery, 2006) and Inside the Asylum: Why the UN and Old Europe are Worse than You Think (Regnery, 2004). (E-mail him at jbabbin@eaglepub.com.)"

Jed Babbin's argument for criminalizing whistle-blowers, or "leakers," and the investigative reporters who court them:

" .. Reporters aren’t doctors or priests, but Congress is considering raising their legal status to similar level by creating a legal 'shield' for journalists to protect confidential sources. ...

"The CIA’s secret prisons where terrorist suspects were held and interrogated -- located were in Eastern Europe and Asia Minor, among other places -- were top secret. Someone leaked the secret prison program and some of the locations to Washington Post reporter Dana Priest. Over administration objections, the leaks (but not the prison locations) were published by the Post on November 2, 2005. The program was both legal and secret [sic]. It was published and thus damaged. Some of the nations which had hosted the secret prisons reportedly closed them. But the Bush administration didn’t investigate or prosecute the leakers. One CIA employee was reportedly fired but nobody was charged with the crime [Babbin just wrote that the prisons were "legal," now they're a "crime"]. ...

"The most high-profile of these stories is the now-famous 'terrorist surveillance program' run by the National Security Administration ... "

Telling that Babbin puts quotes around "terrorist" surveillance system. He claims that the illegal taps "reportedly [reported by whom? Bush?] intercepted thousands of communications between terrorists and their sympathizers or compatriots within the United States. ... "

"I may have a different view of these matters than most journalists. As an Air Force officer and later as a deputy undersecretary of defense, I have had several security clearances, including some very fancy 'tickets' to the highest levels of classified information. I’m sure that there are things in my brain’s attic that are still classified. I will never speak or write of them."

Well, how many federal crimes does he know about? How many has he participated in?